In
2009, I published a little book entitled Osama bin Laden: Dead or
Alive?1 Much evidence, I showed, suggested that Osama bin Laden had
died on or about December 13, 2001. (Although this book was ignored by
the US press, it received major reviews in British newspapers,2 and it
even provided the basis for a BBC special.3) Pointing out that the only
evidence to the contrary consists of “messages from bin Laden” in the
form of audiotapes and videotapes that have appeared since 2001, I
devoted one chapter to an examination of the most important of these
tapes, showing that none are demonstrably authentic and that some are
almost certainly fakes.

In
the chapter preceding that examination, I discussed two videotapes
containing purported interviews of Osama bin Laden in the fall of 2001,
when the issue was whether he had been responsible for the 9/11
attacks. I suggested that both of these tapes, in which bin Laden
allegedly admitted his responsibility, were fakes. If they were, I
pointed out, this fact would increase the likelihood that all of the
“Osama bin Laden tapes” appearing in the following years – when the
question of whether he was still alive was added to that of his
responsibility for 9/11 – were also fakes.

The
clearest example, I argued, was the most famous of the so-called bin
Laden confession videos. Having allegedly been found in a private home
in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in late November 2001, it is sometimes
called the “November 9 bin Laden video,” because this date was stamped
on it, implying that this was when it was made. It is also called the
“bin Laden video of December 13,” because that was the date on which it
was released to the public by the Pentagon – which is perhaps
significant, given the evidence that bin Laden may have died on that
day. (If he had, he would have obviously, and perhaps conveniently,
been unable to comment on whether the tape was authentic.) In any case,
I provided several reasons for concluding that this video was almost
certainly fabricated.

I
also suggested, with greater tentativeness, that another pre-2002 video
had been fabricated. This one had been described in a November 11,
2001, article in London’s Telegraph by David Bamber entitled “Bin
Laden: Yes, I Did It.” According to Bamber, the Telegraph had on the
previous day “obtained access” to a video in which “Osama bin Laden has
for the first time admitted that his al-Qa’eda group carried out the
[9/11] attacks.” Bamber added that this video, which would “form the
centrepiece of Britain and America’s new evidence against bin Laden,”
was going to be released to the public on November 14.4 More……………………………..